Conventionally, there has been widely used a disk device which is installed with a magazine for housing disks and in which a disk taken out from the magazine is automatically played. Such a disk device is excellent in operability since the disks do not have to be inserted or ejected one by one every time when playing the disk.
However, it is required that the magazine attached or detached with respect to the device be strong enough to protect a plurality of disks held therein when taking out the magazine to the outside. Therefore, the walls of the magazine main body are thick, and as a result the sizes of the magazine itself and the entire device for installing the magazine are large. Moreover, in order to take out a tray or the like holding the disks inside the magazine, a guiding groove and a rail section are provided on an inner face of a side wall of the magazine. By forming such a groove and rail section, the thickness of the magazine side wall further increases and the gap between each adjacent disk holder becomes wide, whereby the height of the magazine increases and the size of the device for installing the magazine also increases.
In addition, in order to take out a disk housed in the magazine and play the disk, it is necessary to provide a sufficient space in the device, thus the size of the device increases. Particularly, as in an on-board disk device or the like, in the case where a disk needs to be housed in a size of 180×50 (mm), which is called “DIN size”, or a size of 180×100 (mm), which is called “double DIN size”, small-size disk devices are highly demanded.
In order to deal with such demand, a disk device is developed in which a magazine is split, and a drive unit for playing a disk is provided in a space formed by splitting the magazine, so that the disk can be played without taking out the disk from the magazine (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-232753, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-306637). Such disk device does not require a space for taking out and play a disk, thus the size of the entire device can be made small.
Furthermore, there is proposed a disk device, in which a detachable magazine is not used but disk housing sections such as disk holders and disk trays capable of housing a plurality of disks therein are previously incorporated in the device in a stacked fashion, a disk inserted from a disk insertion opening is automatically housed in the disk housing section, and the housed disk can be automatically ejected. In such a disk device, an opening, a mechanism and the like coping with the thickness of the magazine or attachment of the magazine are not required, thus a small-size device can be realized. Particularly, in the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-195134, disk housing sections are provided vertically so that they can be split as with the abovementioned split magazine, and a drive unit is inserted into the split disk housing sections, whereby a disk can be played without taking it out. Accordingly, further reduction in size of the device can be achieved.
Incidentally, in such an on-board disk device, when considering vibration or the like applied thereto, it is highly required to stably hold a disk on a turning table when playing the disk. Therefore, it is preferred to perform disk clamping for holding a disk from the top and bottom thereof by pressing an inner diameter of the disk against the turning tale by means of a press-bonding section such as a clamper. As a disk clamping device for realizing such disk clamping, there is considered a disk clamping device in which one end of a clamp arm supporting a clamper at the other end is provided rotatably around a spindle, and the clamper which is moved up and down by a rotation of the clamp arm is caused to contact with and separate from the disk.
However, in such a disk clamping device, the clamp arm which releases the disk stands up in a direction oblique to a disk surface, whereby the clamper also is inclined with respect to the disk surface. Consequently, the size of a withdrawing space, which is required to swing and insert the clamper between disk holders or disk trays, increases. Moreover, a clamper, which is in a standby state without being swung and inserted, also stands up in the oblique direction, thus the required space in the direction of the height of the device also increases. Further, when disk clamping is performed by a press-bonding section, or when the disk is released, it is necessary to provide the spindle around which the clamp arm rotate, at a position away from the center of the disk in order to prevent the clamp arm and the outer edge of the disk from contacting with each other. Accordingly, the length of the clamp arm needs to be increased, whereby the required space in the width direction of the device also increases.
For the purpose of reducing the size of the disk clamping device, there has been developed a technology which causes a disk, which is conveyed between a disk insertion opening and a disk housing section, to pass through between a clamper and a turning table located at a disk releasing position. In such a case as well, however, it is necessary to provide the spindle around which the clamp arm rotate, at a position away from the center of the disk in order to prevent the clamp arm and the outer edge of the disk from contacting with each other. Accordingly, the length of the clamp arm needs to be increased, whereby the required space in the width direction of the device also increases.
Moreover, in the case of employing a structure for rotatably swinging and inserting a member installed with a drive unit, into split disk housing sections, the member needs to be swung and inserted at an accurate height, thus it is essential to achieve facilitation and stabilization of rotation. In order to cope with such problem, it is considered to employ a structure for allowing the member installed with a drive unit to rotate around a long axis provided vertically in the disk clamping device. In such a case, however, the size of the supporting structure of the rotational axis section increases easily, and a required space for avoiding an interference with other member also increases.
The present invention is, therefore, contrived in order to resolve the above problems of the conventional technology, and an object of the present invention is to provide a disk clamping device which can reduce a required space for performing disk clamping in the disk device.